“In the first letter we have a picture of the family’s Purim celebration ‘with all the merriment & festivity usually practised in my family, the Children seated at a large Table, in the Parlour, with two lighted Candles, & a great display, of fair Tea (no water & milk for a mockery) – a sweet Loaf, gingerbread, & some few nic-nacs from our friend L in Broad St. – sent in the morng for Shelach Manos….’
“These letters reveal “a man of brave humor, who accepted the whips and arrows of outrageous fortune with an unfailing quizzical philosophic smile. Jolly and frolicsome within the family circle, he also found occasion to give to his family moral admonition and a religious guidance which sprang not from any professional manner but from an inherent goodness.
These letters give us the privilege of knowing him in his old age when he is mellow, tempered in his judgments, and sagacious from long experience of dealing with people. His was a mind that showed no weakening. At 70 he was as vigorous in his interests as in his joie de vivre. Thanks to these letters the revered patriot minister of the Revolution and Trustee of Columbia College is no longer only a formal historical figure. He steps off the pulpit and the platform and becomes a living man of flesh and blood and genial spirit.”
“In all the years from 1784 to 1816 he was the sole leader of New York’s Jewish community. He was deeply loved and he has remained a living memory of the congregation [Shearith Israel]. It was his duty to conduct all Jewish religious services both in the synagogue and outside of it.”[iv]
Gershom Mendes Seixas passed away on July 2, 1816.
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[i] All quotes in this and the next section are from “Gershom Mendes Seixas: His Religious ‘Calling,’ Outlook and Competence,” Thomas Kessner, American Jewish Historical Quarterly (1961-1978); Sep 1968-Jun 1969; 58, 1-4; AJHS Journalpg. 444 ff.
[ii] All quotes in this section are from “Gershom Mendes Seixas’ Letters, 1813 – 1815, to His Daughter Sarah (Seixas) Kursheedt and His Son-in-law Israel Baer Kursheedt,” Rev. D. de Sola Pool, PhD, Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society (1893-1961);1939; 35, AJHS Journal pg. 189 ff.
[iii] For information about him see “America’s First Torah Scholar: Israel Baer Kursheedt,” The Jewish Press, February 7, 2007, page 1. This article is available at http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/front-page/americas-first-torah-scholar-israel-baer-kursheedt/2007/02/07/
[iv] An Old Faith in the New World, Portrait of Shearith Israel 1654 – 1954, David and Tamar de Sola Pool, Columbia University Press, New York, page 173
